How do you distribute EBM to caregiver for the day?

So how do you give the care giver BM for the day? Do you make up bottles in advance and give them the pre portioned bottles ? Do they give you the dirty bottles back each day, or do they clean them?

LO start daycare Tom and I planned on giving three 4 oz bottles along with a few frozen packs for accidents, top offs, etc. However, the childcare provider didn't seem to want it this way. She suggested that I send frozen BM at first which was off putting.. Frozen breastmilk loses some of it's nutritional value and I was a bit disappointed she did not know this. She said most of her moms keep bottles there and she cleans them each day. She said those moms send frozen breastmilk to stock in her fridge. I told her I would be sending fresh bm pumped from the day prior. She then requested I send it all in one large container. I am not a fan of this either bc I want to be in control of how much my baby is getting at each feeding. I am having anxiety over this and i would love some feedback! Thanks!

Re: How do you distribute EBM to caregiver for the day?

Our daycare provider required us to prepare all bottles ahead, label them and place them in our assigned location in the refrigerator. All EBM was given an extra label to ensure it was handled properly. The empty bottles were put into our bag, which hung on our assigned hook so we could take them home and wash them. If baby didn't eat a bottle we had to take it home, so the fridge was empty every day at closing.

I am not sure why your daycare provider would give you a hard time about doing all the washing and prepping yourself. If anything it is saving her a step. And if you prep the bottles exactly as you want them then there is not going to be an accident or a spill, because the top is never coming off the bottle. I would not feel comfortable with my daycare provider pouring my milk for me, nor would I feel comfortable sending in extra.

Re: How do you distribute EBM to caregiver for the day?

I am glad someone with exp. chimed in. I agree with pp, large bottles of your milk being prepared at day care sounds like a recipe for spilled precious milk.

I think you have the right to send your dcp your milk any way you wish unless they have a compelling reason to want it another way. It sounds as if your plan would be less work for the dcp (no need to wash bottles) so I am not sure what the problem is.

I have to admit I was not aware frozen milk loses a serous amount of nutritional value-many moms freeze their expressed milk. However, again, this should be your choice unless there is some problem with milk for the day being in her fridge. I do see a big problem with large amounts of different mothers milk stocked in the dcp's freezer. What if her power goes out or her freezer breaks, or she just forgets to close the door all the way some hot afternoon? That could potentially mean a lot of wasted milk.

As far as the single container, perhaps she wants to give smaller or larger bottles. (?) Again I think this should be your call.

Here is a good handout you can give her, it is two pages- first page about paced bottle feeding and second about milk handling and storage. Even if she is experienced with handling breastmilk, this contains updated info, such as that an unfinished bottle of breastmilk can be put back in the fridge for another feeding. It also has tips on cue feeding and paced bottle feeding.

Re: How do you distribute EBM to caregiver for the day?

Hmm. This sounds odd to me. I also would not be comfortable doing any of the things your provider requested. There is really no compelling reason to do it, either--as previous posters mentioned, you are actually saving her a good deal of work by sending her bottles that are already prepared. I cannot fathom why the provider would want you to send her one giant container to portion off herself. There's a lot of extra work there, a lot of potential for overfeeding, and a lot of potential for spilled/wasted milk. From what I understand, the freezing process does in fact kill off some of the "living" components of breastmilk, so there is a small benefit in using fresh over frozen breastmilk. If you have it available, why NOT keep it fresh? I guess I'm just confused about why the DCP would care either way, unless she's not familiar with safe handling of expressed milk?

My mom is my daughter's in-home care provider, but I have always prepared the bottles for her. I actually prepare my bottles in the exact portions for the next day's feeding while I am at work. My daughter did best with very frequent feedings, so in our case, that initially meant I prepared and left six 2 oz bottles for baby. I made it a point to leave an extra 2 oz bottle in the fridge (when I had it available) in case of spills, growth spurts, getting stuck late at work with a patient, or whatever, and I also left a couple of very small freezer portions in case of emergencies. Even though my mom is caring for my daughter at my home, I still prefer to wash and take care of the used bottles myself.

If I were in your position, I think I would just put my foot down about doing it the way you intended.

Apologies for the short responses! I'm usually responding one-handed on my smartphone!

Re: How do you distribute EBM to caregiver for the day?

This is so weird. Most day cares will not clean bottles. It takes time and effort away from caring for the children. In fact in some states (including mine) it's not permitted by licensing regulations for licensed providers to reuse bottles at all.

One large container of breastmilk is a bad idea. Potential for spilling it is there. Also I just wouldn't be comfortable with someone else handling and portioning my breast milk and bottle parts. I feel like I want to control it. How do I know they are cleaning the bottle parts as I want them, portioning as I want, etc?

Also the milk will need to be stored in a refridgerator, thus the fat will separate to the top. It can't fully re-incorporate again without heating the milk at least to room temperature. So your provider would either be reheating the same large container multiple times in order to swirl it all back together (bad bad bad), or pouring off big chunks of the fat into some bottles but not all. I just wouldn't like that.

Agree with the PPs. Be firm on your feeding preferences. That is what you are paying the DCP to do. Feed your baby as you prefer it to be done.